Travel Hell

Author Olen Steinhauer has already posted a complimentary note about January Magazine critic Jim Winter’s review of his brand-new espionage novel, The Tourist. Being the skeptic that I am, I’d normally worry about too much enthusiasm being voiced by a writer whose book has just been dissected in print. However, in this case, Steinhauer concedes that Winter--while he has “some wonderful things to say about the book”--is also right to call him out on a questionable plot detail that “has nagged at me ever since I wrote it, wondering if people would buy it.”

I shan’t reveal what that particular plot detail is here. Instead, let me just quote the opening paragraphs of Winter’s review, to get you interested in reading further:

Olen Steinhauer takes on the reality of James Bond’s world in his latest novel, The Tourist. His story doesn’t involve tuxedoes, fancy gadgets or gorgeous femmes fatales. What it does involve is lying.

A lot of lying.

This tale opens on September 10, 2001, and a CIA operative using the name “Charles Alexander” has just botched a mission in The Netherlands. The pill-popping field agent did manage to stop an assassin known as “The Tiger” from killing a Dutch politician friendly to U.S. interests. However, he failed to take the bullet in his quest to end his “tourism,” the Central Intelligence Agency’s euphemism for working undercover in the field.

The full review can be found here.